Posts Tagged ‘orlando’

I really wish that my first post back after a rotten week at work that took my time away from writing and breathing and sanity did not have to touch on a tragedy as painful, destructive, and avoidable as the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting, a terrorist attack that targeted the already marginalized, the already vulnerable, the already oppressed LGBT community.

More than 100 people were killed or wounded early this morning by a radicalized excuse for a man whose pathetically easy access to gas-powered rifles of mass destruction was the real root cause of this senseless public health emergency. Yes, it’s a fact that we don’t take mental health seriously; yes, it’s a fact that radicalized Islamic terrorism is a real threat facing the entire world; however, there is no argument that ease of access to guns is the real problem here.

I’ll ignore for a moment the despicable reactions across social media, news comment sections, and out of the mouths of our moron politicians and focus entirely on this country’s gun fascination… its gun obsession… its apparent desire to bring back some chauvinistic Wild West fantasy that never existed.

It is my belief that the Second Amendment should have been altered when it was first written to state that the right to keep and bear arms applies only to citizens actively serving in militias. Since it doesn’t say that, and since case law has seemed to state that people have a right to own guns for any reason, it is not feasible at this point to ban guns outright. There are just too many out there. As a result, the process of buying a gun should be as difficult as possible to stem the embarrassing numbers of firearm homicides, accidents, and suicides in this country, numbers that disgracefully dwarf most other industrialized nations. Thorough background checks, training, psychological testing, and the closing of loopholes are all minimums for the gun purchase requirements I believe should exist.

Why is life, especially for those who love to bloviate about its so-called sanctity, less important than the anachronistic Second Amendment? Why are there so many people in this country who believe that killing with a firearm is a right so sacrosanct, perhaps bestowed by God, that it has no room for limit, common sense, or change of any kind? I have asked anyone who is connected to me on social media and feels this way to just unfriend or block me and save us both the pain and trouble the next time dozens more innocent people are cut down for no reason.